Called to Serve

This past weekend I had the unique opportunity to go to my parents' missionary farewell. They are leaving in a couple of weeks to serve in the Family History Center in Salt Lake City for 18 months.

On Sunday, my parents' entire posterity (5 children, 5 children-in-law, and 16 grandchidren) gathered together to hear them speak in church, share a meal together, and see them set apart as missionaries by the stake president. It was wonderful.

I think it was my mom's idea of heaven, having all of her family together in one room. We took up three long pews at church, and the grandkids sang two of my brother-in-law Matt's songs, I Feel the Spirit and When I Hear the Prophet's Voice.

The cousins had a ball playing together. My parents have a large property, so the kids played a lot of soccer. My dad paid the kids 50 cents a lap to run the 1/4 mile lap he created. Olivia ran 7 laps. That's almost 2 miles!Caleb ran 5. After he ran 2 laps, he proclaimed he was tired and ready to stop. My dad handed over a dollar. Caleb immediately decided to run more laps.

My cousin Virginia, who lives in San Francisco, came up to spend the day with the family. It was so great to see her. When I was growing up, she was always the little kid with curly hair, but now she is a 24-year-old college graduate with confidence and personality to spare. What a great gal. Here she is (in front) with my siblings and me.
We went to my parents' ward, the ward I grew up in, and got to see tons of old friends. I skipped Sunday School (shhh, don't tell) and chatted in the foyer with three guys who I knew as little boys, but now they are all dads! It was strange but really cool to see them all grown up.

I will miss my parents' house since we won't be able to go there while they are gone. They live in such a beautiful area.

But, we will be able to visit my parents in Salt Lake, which I am excited about.

We'll miss you, Mom and Dad!!! We are so excited for you! You will be fabulous missionaries!!!

We've Come a Long Way, Baby

Eleven years ago today I made the best decision of my life.

Six addresses, 3 kids, and countless bouts of laughter later, I still believe it's the smartest thing I've ever done. Happy anniversary, Honey. I love you so much.

More Projects

With my older kids in school my brain can finally free up some space to think about projects. Now that we're about through the current wave of babies in the ward, I've been excited about doing some home improvement projects as well.

During a few of the many hours of general conference a couple of weeks ago, I recovered the kitchen chairs. It was time. They were looking pretty shabby. The plastic was ripping off of most of them, and the fabric was getting all dirty. The pictures don't really show how nasty they were in real life.

One of these days I'd like to do a larger-scale kitchen remodel, where we paint the cabinets and walls, get a new stove, and make curtains for the windows. Everything will be color-coordinated and look spiffy. Until then, I just decided to pick out a fabric I like for the kitchen chairs. I figure I can change them later if I really want a different color. For now, red's good. It's kinda fun and tropical-y, I think.

Another project I got excited about doing is putting blinds on all the windows in the living room. This one has had this ugly gray curtain since we've lived here, and the others were bare. When the afternoon sun beats in, our downstairs turns into an oven! So, now that summer is over and it's not as hot anymore, I decided it's finally time to get it done. Thus is the irony of my life.

After the gray curtain came off (you like our Halloween stickers?):
Erik was amazing and put up all the new blinds. I opened the first box and got intimidated. The box stayed there, opened, for a few days. Then Erik decided to take it over and got it all done in a day. Don't they look nice?
Here's another window:

It makes me so happy to have these "new" chairs and nicely covered windows! Every time I pass by them I smile. Next step: some curtains for these windows. But first, I really need to make curtains for my kids' rooms. I've had the fabric for at least 6 months now, after all. I need to just do it. Stay tuned.

Off to Important Business

... with fairy wings. And yes, he does wear pants. Sometimes. They just usually don't stay on for long. And I keep failing to photographically document it when he does wear them. Who needs pants anyway, right?

This picture reminds me of a story my sister told me recently. She heard it at stake conference, so it's third-hand, so I haven't verified the details. But it's pretty cute.

Apparently, in the church nursery one Sunday, one of the younger (18 months old-ish) kids was sad and crying. One of the older (3 yrs old) kids went over to comfort him. As the nursery leader snuck behind them up to keep an eye on things, she was surprised to see the older child placing his hands on the younger kid's head. He then proceeded to "administer" a priesthood blessing. "I bless you that you won't cry," and so on. The woman telling the story then remarked, "The best part was, the older kid had fairy wings on!"

Call Me Little Miss Crafty

Are you having a baby? Well, if you are, and you know me, you may now commence to rejoice. Why, you ask? Because, my friends, I am on a baby gift-making roll. I just can't stop making cute baby things, and since my own baby is a toddler already, I'm not going to be getting much use out of them any time soon. And I'm NOT pregnant, so you can just zip your mouth shut about that right now.

I started out making burp cloths. Well, not so much making as sewing ribbons onto. I got really excited about it and bought a whole bunch of ribbon. It seemed every time I went to Michael's or Joann's (which was often, at this point), I found some new adorable ribbon I just had to have.

I gave these to my friend Laura at her baby shower last week. She's having a boy.

I also couldn't resist making her a blanket out of this super-cute monkey fabric:

Next I moved on to the girls. Audrey, don't look unless it's already past Friday. Or, act surprised and thrilled at your baby shower:

I have lots more adorable, coordinating ribbon, so if I don't know you're pregnant, call me! I'll make you some!

Even while I was in the midst of my ribbon-buying spree, I decided I wanted to learn yet another fun craft. My super-talented friend Amy had posted about making some adorable onesies awhile ago, and I suddenly decided I had to learn how to make them RIGHT NOW. Mine are pretty basic, so please don't compare mine to her masterpieces, but I think they're pretty cute:

I realize they aren't all girl onesies and they're on a pink blanket, but I wanted to take a pic before I sent these off in the mail. Here are the rest of the first batch:

Please disregard the fact that some of the images are kind of too small (Superman), and/or crooked (umbrella).

For some reason it was easier for me to think of cute boy ideas. I guess because I have two boys of my own!

My favorite boy ones:

And my fave of the girls:

They are so fun to make! Now if you'll excuse me, there are several more pregnant ladies in my ward so I need to go make some more baby gifts before I decide to move on to the next craft.

Favorite Conference Quote

Not to have favorites, but I just love Elder Bednar. I always enjoy his talks, and find him to be particularly insightful. He had a quote from General Conference about a year ago that I still think about and remember as profound, and I noticed he used it a couple of times in his talk today.

You ready for it?

You sure?

Here goes:

"What we know is not always reflected in what we do."

So true, Elder B. So true.

For example, I know I should serve with compassion and not murmur about the "difficulties" in my life.

I know I should respond to my childrens' meltdowns with kindness and love, but that's not guaranteed to happen.

I know I should read my scriptures every day, pray with fervor, and read all the Conference talks. But I don't always do this.

Heck, I certainly know I shouldn't eat that second bowl of ice cream (or, arguably, the first), but more often than not, I do that too.

But I'm trying. I'm trying to make my actions consistent with my knowledge. Maybe I should just not learn anything new, so I don't have to aim any higher.

Although, I'm pretty sure that's not what Elder Bednar had in mind.

Rats.